That Cold And Fuzzy Feeling

Exotic Pet Lovers Show Off Their Animal Attractions

"I like tarantulas more than cats or dogs," said Wendy Kozikowski, as one of the hairy spiders crept up her forearm. "You don't have to walk them. You don't have to clean up. They don't make noise."

Various species of tarantula - along with scorpions and snakes - were on display at her table Saturday at the National Guard Armory near West Palm Beach, where about 45 vendors sold ball pythons, reticulated pythons, tortoises, lizards and a fruit bat at the Florida Reptile and Alternative Pet Super Show.

The show comes at a time when the industry is grappling with the public relations disaster of the Burmese pythons that have colonized the Everglades, brought there either through escapes during Hurricane Andrew or illegal releases by pet owners tired of the hassles of a caring for a 14-foot snake. Congress is considering bills to ban the import of and interstate trade in Burmese and African rock pythons, and to sharply restrict the commercial import of all kinds of wildlife.

Kozikowski, whose company, Exotic Kingdom, is located outside Orlando, said unusual animals can make excellent pets, often requiring less maintenance than the traditional companion animals.

"We're trying to open people's eyes," she said. "I used to have arachnophobia. But I got over it when somebody placed a tarantula in my hand."

The room was crowded, with a heavy concentration of grade-school boys, as people strode past tables of weird animals. The most popular species by far appeared to be the ball python, named for its habit of curling up into a ball. Beginners like them because they reach a maximum length of only 4 feet or so, unlike the Burmese, which can grow to a menacing 18 feet. And specialists seeking ever rarer color combinations called morphs pay thousands for the hard-to-get ball python skin patterns.

"They're cooler than a kitten or a puppy," said Kelly Goodman, 18, of Wellington, holding her coiled, 3-foot ball python named Salem as she scanned a display of snakes for a new acquisition. "Not a lot of people have them."

At Homestead dealer Tom Crutchfield's table, a glass enclosure contained an extremely rare blue morph of a green iguana from El Salvador, with a sign that proclaimed, "$10,000 takes it home."

"This is a subculture, like someone collecting stamps or coins or guns or knives," he said. "What you have basically are living gems."

The publicity over Burmese pythons in the Everglades overstates the threat, he said, particularly compared with other exotic animals such as the monitor lizard and, worst of all, the feral cat. In Key Largo, for example, a huge colony of feral cats constitutes a much greater menace to the rare Key Largo wood rat than the couple of Burmese pythons that have been found there. "But no one talks about cats, they talk about pythons," Crutchfield said. "You know why? It sells newspapers."

As these pets move into the mainstream, wildlife advocates say many people are acquiring animals they don't know how to care for, at immense cost to the animals and the environment.

"They're a novelty, and when the novelty wears off it can be difficult to find a new home for them," said Beth Preiss, exotic pets director for the Humane Society of the United States. "Many of them end their lives in cages in basements when they should be living out in the wild. Or they get released or escape into the outdoors where they can wreak havoc on the ecosystem."

Krysti Payne, 37, of Royal Palm Beach, plans to get into the business of breeding fire ball pythons and was looking for new snakes.

"They're conversation starters," she said, as her python coiled around her neck and shoulders. "I go out with my snakes and somebody wants to touch them, somebody wants to ask about them."

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4535.